Can I avoid using the garbage collected heap?

All languages that target the runtime allow you to allocate class objects from the garbage-collected heap. This brings benefits in terms of fast allocation, and avoids the need for programmers to work out when they should explicitly 'free' each object. The CLR also provides what are called ValueTypes-these are like classes, except that ValueType objects are allocated on the runtime stack (rather than the heap), and therefore reclaimed automatically when your code exits the procedure in which they are defined. This is how "structs" in C# operate.

Managed Extensions to C++ lets you choose where class objects are allocated. If declared as managed Classes, with the __gc keyword, then they are allocated from the garbage-collected heap. If they don't include the __gc keyword, they behave like regular C++ objects, allocated from the C++ heap, and freed explicitly with the "free" method.

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Can I avoid using the garbage collected heap?
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The process of transitively tracing through all pointers to actively used objects in order to locate all objects that can be referenced, and then arranging to reuse any heap memory that was not found during this trace. The common language runtime garbage collector also compacts the memory that is in use to reduce the working space needed for the heap. (More...)

The methods in this class influence when an object is garbage collected and when resources allocated by an object are released. Properties in this class provide information about the total amount of memory available in the system and the age category, or generation, of memory allocated to an object. Periodically, the garbage collector performs garbage collection to reclaim memory allocated to objects for which there are no valid references.

Garbage collection happens automatically when a request for memory cannot be satisfied using available free memory. Alternatively, an application can force garbage collection using the Collect method.Garbage collection consists of the following steps:

The garbage collector searches for managed objects that are referenced in managed code.

The garbage collector attempts to finalize objects that are not referenced.

The garbage collector frees objects that are not referenced and reclaims their memory. (More...)

Class instances often encapsulate control over resources that are not managed by the runtime, such as window handles (HWND), database connections, and so on. Therefore, you should provide both an explicit and an implicit way to free those resources. Provide implicit control by implementing the protected Finalize Method on an object (destructor syntax in C# and the Managed Extensions for C++). The garbage collector calls this method at some point after there are no longer any valid references to the object.In some cases, you might want to provide programmers using an object with the ability to explicitly release these external resources before the garbage collector frees the object. If an external resource is scarce or expensive, better performance can be achieved if the programmer explicitly releases resources when they are no longer being used. To provide explicit control, implement the Dispose method provided by the IDisposable Interface. The consumer of the object should call this method when it is done using the object. Dispose can be called even if other references to the object are alive.

Note that even when you provide explicit control by way of Dispose, you should provide implicit cleanup using the Finalize method. Finalize provides a backup to prevent resources from permanently leaking if the programmer fails to call Dispose. (More...)

Getting memory from the heap is much slower than getting it from the stack. On the other hand, the heap is much more flexible than the stack. Memory can be allocated at any time and deallocated in any order. Such memory isn't deallocated automatically; you have to call free().Recursive data structures are almost always implemented with memory from the heap. Strings often come from there too, especially strings that could be very long at runtime. If you can keep data in a local variable (and allocate it from the stack), your code will run faster than if you put the data on the heap. Sometimes you can use a better algorithm if you use the heap faster, or more robust, or more flexible. Its a tradeoff.If memory is allocated from the heap, its available until the program ends. That's great if you remember to deallocate it when you're done. If you forget, it's a problem. A ?memory leak is some allocated memory that's no longer needed but isn't deallocated. If you have a memory leak inside a loop, you can use up all the memory on the heap and not be able to get any more. (When that happens, the allocation functions return a null pointer.) In some environments, if a program doesn't deallocate everything it allocated, memory stays unavailable even after the program ends. (More...)

Garbage collection is a mechanism that allows the computer to detect when an object can no longer be accessed. It then automatically releases the memory used by that object (as well as calling a clean-up routine, called a "finalizer," which is written by the user). Some garbage collectors, like the one used by .NET, compact memory and therefore decrease your program's working set. (More...)

Garbage collection is a CLR feature which automatically manages memory. Programmers forget to release the objects while coding..... Laziness (Remember in VB6 where one of the good practices is to set object to nothing). CLR automatically releases objects when they are no longer in use and refernced. CLR runs on non-deterministic to see the unused objects and cleans them. One side effect of this non-deterministic feature is that we cannot assume an object is destroyed when it goes out of the scope of a function. Therefore, we should not put code into a class destructor to release resources. (More...)

Garbage collection is a mechanism that allows the computer to detect when an object can no longer be accessed. It then automatically releases the memory used by that object (as well as calling a clean-up routine, called a "finalizer," which is written by the user). Some garbage collectors, like the one used by .NET, compact memory and therefore decrease your program's working set. (More...)

For most programmers, having a garbage collector (and using garbage collected objects) means that you never have to worry about deallocating memory, or reference counting objects, even if you use sophisticated data structures. It does require some changes in coding style, however, if you typically deallocate system resources (file handles, locks, and so forth) in the same block of code that releases the memory for an object. With a garbage collected object you should provide a method that releases the system resources deterministically (that is, under your program control) and let the garbage collector release the memory when it compacts the working set. (More...)

Garbage collection is a special feature of CLR which automatically manages memory. Some times programmers will forget to release unused objects. CLR releases objects when they are no longer referenced. It runs on non-deterministic code to see unused objects and destroy them. One side effect of these non-deterministic code that we can't assume the object is deleted when it goes out of the scope. So, we don't need to put destructor to destroy these objects. (More...)

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